KEY POINTS:
The row over how local our New Zealand bacon really isn't, might have had pork lovers up in arms but it's nothing compared to a mistake in print about New Zealand wine last month.
In the fallout from the storm about sauvignon blanc late last year, a high-profile
magazine incorrectly stated that only 55 per cent of New Zealand wine had to be true to label.
This bizarre misinformation was given to a writer, who was mortified to have been so misinformed by a third party. Innocent mistakes aside, the irony is that at the same time the story went to press, the screws were tightened on rules governing New Zealand wine labels. And the new rules have nothing to do with wine scandals or generating positive press.
The amendment to the Wine Act now has it that 85 per cent of what it says on a wine label has to be true. Prior to the amendment, it was only 75 per cent, which was in line with the rules in North America.
It's taken years to change the rules by law, says Philip Gregan, CEO of New Zealand Winegrowers. And the impetus for change was so we fall into line with our biggest wine export market, Europe. Either way, it's a better hit-rate than those meat products that don't give any percentage or information about region of origin.
This little kerfuffle raises bigger questions of a more insidious trend in New Zealand wine - the globalisation of low-priced, long-established New Zealand wine brands. A bottle of 2005 Saints Barossa Shiraz sits in front of me as a perfect example of a local wine gone global.
The grapes all come from Australia but at least the label says so. And Saints is by no means alone. It is just one in a growing line-up of wine brands a lot of New Zealanders hold dear to their palates and, more importantly, to their pockets - thinking they are buying locally made wine when it is nothing of the sort.
Google Saints wines and you'll come up with an out-of-date tagline that says its makers intend Saints Chardonnay to be an example of the regional character of Gisborne. Perhaps my memory is playing tricks but I'm sure that the entire Saints range was once intended to be the purity of Gisborne in the bottle.
Never mind. The chardonnay is still what it was originally intended to be and Gisborne never was going to be a shiraz stronghold - particularly when it's up against the Barossa Valley.
This range of wines easily passes muster for everyday drinking, cashing in on a successful brand name and offering a lot for not very much outlay. In those terms it's a mammoth success story.
Like many other low-priced New Zealand wine brands that have gone global (if in doubt, read the fine print on the label), it gives you what you want in the glass. It just doesn't deliver the definable taste of home.
And how could it? This country's biggest wine strength is at the top end of the market rather than pumping through massive quantities of low-priced, fast-moving consumables.
In other breaking news, New Zealand's first reserve viognier has hit shop shelves. If you thought pinot gris was the next white thing, check out the 2006 Church Road Reserve Viognier. It's hardly a steal at $34.95 but it is one of the best New Zealand takes on viognier yet made and it comes hot on the heels of the 2004 Church Road Reserve Chardonnay getting the Best Chardonnay Trophy at the 2007 Royal Easter Wine Show.
